OCTOBER 1, 2012
THE QUAD ENTERTAINMENT
PAGE 15
Ed Sheeran mesmerizes a Penn’s Landing audience Victoria Holt Special to The Quad
There was a surprisingly quiet crowd gathered at Penn’s Landing on Sept. 23 and it was all for British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. Sheeran, a native of Suffolk, England, is an up and coming artist who has written songs for the popular boy band One Direction and performed at this year’s Olympic Closing Ceremonies, where he sang Pink Floyd’s famous song, “Wish You Were Here.” The ginger-haired singer played not with a band, but with his acoustic guitar, for a sold-out crowd at the River Stage at Great Plaza as a part of VH1’s You Outta Know Tour. The show started relatively early; Sheeran started his 11-song set list a little before 8 p.m. Sheeran
performed songs from his debut album “+,” as well as his multiple EPs. He also performed two cover songs. He performed the first cover with both of his opening acts, Selah Sue and Passenger. The other cover was Nina Simone’s “Be My Husband.” Sheeran entertained the crowd with his stories between songs. He talked about life in Suffolk, meeting his opening act Passenger, and the backstory of “Kiss Me.” “Kiss Me,” a song about two friends falling in love, is about Sheeran’s godparents. They asked Sheeran to write and perform a song at their wedding. This heartwarming story was slightly short lived because Sheeran noticed a girl in the pit section who had fainted. Sheeran wait-
ed until the girl received vor from a concert audimedical attention and ence. He asked for silence even asked the audience during multiple songs because he to sit tight wanted the while he www.last.fm audience made sure to get the the girl “intimate” was all feeling of right. Forhis songs, tunately, including she was. “Kiss Me.” UnfortuHe also pernately, formed “The part of the Parting set was Gift,” a tracomproditional folk mised by song, partly fireworks without the across the use of a miDelaware crophone River, but Ed Sheeran played in Philly on the 23 during his Sheeran encore. The r a l l i e d at Penn’s Landing. crowd of through it and treated his audience mostly teenagers stood silent with the appearto an additional song. During his performance, ance of awe on their faces. Sheeran asked an odd fa- Sheeran also asked mem-
bers of the crowd to refrain from singing along to a few songs so they could hear the raw emotion in his voice and get a full feel for the song. The up and coming musician gave his own taste of Philly to the audience. Before one song, Sheeran explained one of his tour traditions: if he has the time, he tries to get a tattoo in every city in which tours. In this case, he got a tattoo of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” logo on his arm. Additionally, during his first encore song, “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You,” Sheeran switched up the music to rap the theme to “Fresh Prince,” which threw the crowd into a frenzy of rapping and filled the audience with Philadelphia pride. Sheeran finished the
lively show with a more popular song, “The ATeam,” but unfortunately could not stay and meet fans because the performance was in a residential area. Currently, Sheeran is finishing up the VH1 tour and recently announced his own North American headlining tour for the winter. Unfortunately for local fans, Sheeran did not announce a date for the Philadelphia area. If you are interested in hearing his music, make sure to pick up or download Sheeran’s debut album “+.” Victoria Holt is a secondyear student majoring in communication studies with a journalism minor. She can be reached at VH758202@wcupa.edu.
WANTED: Graduating Student to Present Greetings at Commencement An Undergraduate Student will present greetings from the graduating class at the December 2012 commencement. The student speaker will be chosen by audition, to be held on Oct. 24, 25 , and 26. Applications are now available in the Registrar’s Office: 25 University Avenue, Ground Floor At the audition, each applicant will read the speech that he or she will present at commencement. The speech must be no longer than 3 minutes. A typed, double-spaced copy must be included with the application. The student selected must present the speech at the commencement rehearsal, which will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, December 14.
All completed applications and speeches must be submitted to the Registrar’s Office no later than 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 22. You will be notified in advance to schedule an audition time.